Hello, Hello!
Thank you for so many happy birthday wishes! Mom, I didn't have enough time to properly thank you for the package you sent. I opened it and everything was yellow and bright and happy, and you could just feel the love and sunshine seep out of it. Literally, made me so happy. Thank you so much! I love you all more than I can say, and am so glad to have this mission remind me what's so important here. And it's always you.

And Dad, thank you for that letter. At the foot of my bed I have that box you guys sent me for Christmas, except now it's full of all the gifts I have planned to send all of you. I guess Tommy might never get his really well bargained for briefcase off lady's street. I worked that thing down from 900 to 220. impressed?! can you tell I'm really proud of that? haha anyway, I have this box at the foot of my bed that I have also put the cards or letters you send me in too. But the past few weeks before I go to sleep I'll pull out your letter, dad, and read it. So thank you. It means a lot to me. I know you've written me lots and other people have written me lots, but I've just really enjoyed reading it before going to bed.

This weekend was really so great. My mainland friend Dan Dan came back to visit the temple, so we got to go out finding with her again. She's just so powerful. I love her. always teaches me so much. It was funny how positive she was about everything. Everyone we talked to she would walk away on cloud nine just beaming and certain that they were the one. They were so ready. How do we call it? ...they are golden! haha. and me and my companion are walking away thinking that just gave us their number because it was the only way to get rid of us! Not really, but sometimes the experience of things can harden us. It was such a great perspective and attitude she has. For zone conference this month, we're going to share about this talk we found called, "Love is not blind." You should check it out. I love the story he shares at the beginning about the boy who grew up on a farm, and was promised the next young calf to be borne. But after the mom cow gave birth, and fell over onto it, the young 12 year old boy held the baby cow in his arms, and recognizing he had the priesthood authority to seek for greater help, he prayed for the cow to be ok. I love how he analyzed that now he isn't sure that he would have done what he did then. He wasn't sure that he would have thought to have prayed for the welfare of the cow or thought that the outcome was anything more than coincidence. And as I went finding with Dan Dan, I realized how easy it is to be hardened a little. How many times do I wake up in the morning and pray that we will find prepared people to teach, and that our investigators with baptismal dates will have the faith and courage to keep their commitments? I pray for that every day, but a lot of days it doesn't happen. and then when it does, I wonder how often in the back of my mind I really think that it wasn't anything more than them just being nice to listen to us, or a thousand other reasons. But Dan Dan had such great trust and faith and gratitude for things that happened. She was aware and made it a point to be aware of the hand of God in her life. And I admired that.
But gaining experience and knowledge and perspective is also very valuable, and helps us progress. Not everything works out perfectly, no matter how hard we will it. Remember Ngh Jimuih? the one we taught last week who saw prayer on tv? She came to church! awesome! Her phone rang during sacrament..., not awesome, but it happens to everyone. She answers it...also not awesome, but it happens an inappropriate amount of the time here, even among members. She puts her phone down, and continues to listen. alright, good. She was sitting several rows ahead of us with a member fellow-shipper she met before. Her phone rings again...and she answers it again! and she's angry! and talking not very quietly! I'm just cringing. and then it happened a 3rd time, so we went and helped her turn it off. She's learning and we need to help her better understand a few things. But things dont always go perfectly. And this is why I love Dan Dan. I feel like one benefit from reading the scriptures so often and understanding them so well is that they help us have good perspective and give clearer explanations for things that appear to be confusing. You can tell how familiar someone is with the book of mormon based on the way they analyze and explain things. I think. I want to have a clear mind about things, and I think one of the best ways to do that is to read the scriptures. So that's what I learned this week.

It was a good week. I had a lot of funny stories to tell you, but I'm not sure how appropriate they are. This man started peeing next to us the other night. it was very scary. haha alright, i need to go. But I love you very much! Thank you for the fun birthday wishes. Talk to you in a week!
love hannah

Believest thou that there is a God?

Hello!! Family!
first off...dont worry about it abbey girl. You are the prettiest looking person I've ever seen in a picture with fries. I still can't get over how gorgeous you are! here they would say waaa....aiya! I don't know haha. go for the trampoline. those are the best nights. And danny, I wish I could hear you! I'm sure you sound amazing! And just send Jack to New York with Tommy. He'll help out for sure with all the unpacking help. No - DC is a beautiful city. And there'll be cherry blossoms! can't beat it.

This week was great! made some new friends :) And lots of them are ready to learn more about the gospel, so that's happy. One was named Ngh Jimuih. She is such a nice woman. She recently went through a bad divorce. She was in very abusive marriage, and has some physical impairments because of it. But one day she was thinking about God and thought maybe she should try finding a church one of these days. And then apparently we walked up seconds later and invited her! So she was pretty convinced God was guiding her, and we were more than happy to share our opinion. We taught her who God was and who Jesus Christ was, and what prayer was. She said she had seen it on tv before but didn't really know much about it. This tends to be a common situation. I study Alma 18 and 22 a lot. But it's a neat experience to teach someone with such little knowledge about such basic principles. She is very lonely and kind of just at a low point. And she is so willing to cling to something. It's made me think more about what faith is. I was reading about Korihor this week. His arguments against the existence of God or how minds become disillusioned to believe in something just because you're looking or wanting something to be there. It's an interesting passage, and in many ways convincing....  Korihor even admits to believing in God at an earlier point, but over time convincing himself otherwise. But after meeting people who are obviously so humble and desperate and searching for something brings a very sacred and loving feeling that convinces me of the reality of the existence of God. You can just feel Heavenly Father in moments like that as a tender parent that we know He is. It was an interesting lesson I learned and thought more about this week.

I thought and learned about a lot this week. I don't know. I need to bring my journal. Next week I'll tell you about what I thought about it. Today we had temple day so are emailing in Kowloon. so it was a little different, and we also have less time. So I'm sorry it's a short one. I'll write a good one next week. Thank you for all the birthday wishes!  And oh my goodness! yes!! I opened the package!!! I do not deserve so much love. Thank you. Thank you so much! I have just absolutely loved it. and I love you! I feel so bad to end this. But I love you and I miss you! and no, I haven't received the card yet, but I'll be looking :)

love you guys!
hannah

Hidden Blessings

Hello Family!!
Boy do I miss you guys. Can I just express how cool I think all of you are? Every one of you is seriously so capable and progressing and just so amazing. I hope you deem me worthy to come back home to join you all. I absolutely love hearing about everything that's happening in your lives. That is so exciting for Tommy. Seriously, I can't wait to hear about his adventures in New York. What a life he has. I hope Camilla feels better soon. That worries me she has been so sick. She's been hit hard lately, I feel like. But I'm excited to hear what she plans to do with law school or teaching and all of that. She's got such great attitude. She is just so good at accomplishing things. I think it's because she doesn't ever fall into the trap of rationalizing things out. I've thought about that talent of hers a lot lately, and decided that's a life long talent I need to develop. I hope she has some happy days coming up. Abbey, double duty going on. Whoever gets to take you to prom will be one lucky kid. Don't even worry about it.

Nothing big this week. Just lot's of finding. And it was good! we met this pohpoh (grandma) who takes care of her year old grandson. And he is the cutest thing to walk the earth. She is so funny. Lots of old people here are really involved with baaihsahn, or ancestor worship. But she thinks it's so maahfaahn. It's so funny to hear her talk about it. She believes in the Savior and lets all her ukkei-yahn house people know it. We love her, except once she came to the church, she didn't want to leave, so she just played with her grandson there at the chapel all day long...there was an activity going on so people were there. But she's so great.

We also got to go finding with Dan-Dan. Dan-Dan has quite the story. She is incredible and I want to be like her someday. Dan-Dan is from mainland, but she was visiting the church to go to the temple this week. She had a few hours to wait for the bus back to her province, so she came finding with us. Finding was something else with her. Most people here in Hong Kong speak both cantonese and mandarin, because they are taught both languages in school. along with english, but the english is super not good. But as we went finding with her (because she speaks mandarin) we would talk to these people in cantonese and she would speak to them in mandarin. Which isn't really a big deal for the people we are talking to because they're fine with both, but we had no idea what she would say, and she didn't have any idea what we would say. We can guess a few words, so I guess we could kind of follow a little, but seriously, they aren't super related languages so it was super hard. But it was really neat to see how well we could still teach these people, or at least communicate a message of hope and happiness to the people we talked to. And that was mostly from her. I think it's very rare to meet someone so committed and joyful in the gospel as Dan-Dan is. Holy cow, she just radiated. She wasn't overwhelming, but I'm trying to describe what it was to be with her, she was just...whelming. Does that make sense? You just wanted to listen to her talk and learn about what she knows and does. She was so magnetic-y, and it was so wonderful to soak in her spirit for those few hours. It was so fun. And it was cool to see that her excitement just kept kicking. She met missionaries in Russia on a bus. She went to medical school is Russia, so she speaks russian. How cool is that? The same day she received her degree, she also received her mission call to the Salt Lake City East Mission. It was fun to learn about her stories. She is a ward missionary in her ward in China, and she said it's amazing how much the people in China are wanting and searching for the truth. She said they never have to do any finding there, because every Sunday, tens of people wander into learn more. Every night she is at the Church teaching lessons after work until late at night where she'll take the 1.5 hour bus ride home. Talk about magnifying your calling. She's practically a full time missionary on top of her job, and to add to that, she keeps in contact with the 50 + people she baptized on her mission. Can you believe that?! I just loved it. Anyway, I'm just going over the top with her. But I learned so much from her.

Now what I've been excited to tell you about all week is that of our neighbors Stanley and Theresa. Stanley is this adorable old man who waits up for us to come home every night, and says goodnight to us through his door gate. Nice man. But little did we know he speaks fluent Italian?! Who would have thought? He's full of all sorts of crazy secrets. But the best part is Theresa, or Queen T, as we call her. She is a hoot. Karaoke is a big thing here in Asia, and let me tell you, she does not disappoint. Queen T ends the night singing her heart out, you are my sunshine, some my fair lady song, all sorts of classics haha. She's this cute little old bald woman, but she wears this wig out that just makes you smile. She is so round. Stan the man and Queen T are just one of the many hidden blessings of serving in Sham Shui Po. I'll send you a picture of them soon.

But I am doing great! Happy, working, all of the above. Thank you so much for the package. I can't wait. You are the best. and the plan with the card sounds great. Can you believe it's already almost mothers day?! We were looking at baptismal dates for one of our investigators the other night, and were shocked at how fast the time is going!

I love you guys. Can't wait to hear from you again soon!

Love hannah

More Than I Deserve

I want to tell you more about what Elder Ballard taught us. It was easily one of the best learning experiences I have ever had. After the line of handshakes, he stands up, and the first words out of his mouth were, "We are a little too shy here." And then he goes on and shares 2 Nephi 25..."For we labor diligently..." through the end of the chapter. His call was for us to broaden our vision, and to ratchet up our spiritual power. He told us a story of Legrande Richards. I want to learn more about him, but the story took place at an airport, Elder Ballard (not then an apostle) and Elder Richards (an apostle) sat near a woman, and feeling that Elder Richards was waiting to see what Elder Ballard would do with this missionary opportunity, Elder Ballard started talking with her. He asked this woman about Peter, James, and John, and after confirming that she was familiar with who they were, he explained the incredible opportunity she had to be in the presence of a modern day apostle of Jesus Christ and turned the conversation over to him, Elder Richards. Elder Ballard thought that was quite smart of him haha. And Elder Richards happily took over the conversation saying, "Which Church do you belong to?" The woman answered and named a church. Elder Richards responded in this deep, low, drawn out voice (that Elder Ballard reenacted so great, "OOhh, that's too bad. Your church is not the true church!!!" ...Elder Ballard said he could feel himself just sinking into his seat. Elder Richard's voice was a booming voice, and he was certain everyone in that terminal could overhear that conversation ha. But they continued to have a nice conversation with the woman and sent her more material about the Church when they returned to Salt Lake. I'm not sure if a young missionary saying that in response would have the same effect as an apostle - ha. In Cantonese it would translate to..."Oh, chahm," and we would probably get hit haha.  But Elder Ballard's point I believe, in sharing this story, was that in order for us to fulfill our duty, we need to boldly, kindly, and following the spirit bear witness and testify of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, and the restoration of His gospel. He later said that baptizing people isn't hard. It's not a hard thing. If we want to baptize more people in this mission, we need to talk to more people. So that's what we have been working on this week. And it kind of sounds silly when you consider what we do on an average day. We do studies until 11:30, eat lunch, and then head to our area which is a 30 minute mtr ride. We go finding and walk the streets, and maybe teach a lesson or two at the church, and come back on the mtr at 9. We are constantly walking around and talking to people, so when Elder Ballard committed every missionary to talk to 10 people a day outside of scheduled finding and teaching time, we didn't know how that was possible, since our day is essentially one big block of finding time. But we're trying, and it's amazing to see the amount of people we have met, as we add money onto our octopus cards or exercise in the morning. I'm learning that talking to people is an exhausting thing! but it's an incredible experience to get to know a little bit about so many different people. I think it's a rare opportunity these days. And more importantly, we have been made to be more personable with these people, and our conversations have been way more meaningful. It's amazing what people will open up to you with and talk to you about after a few short minutes, if they trust you. Anyway, I learned alot, and we're putting more into it.

We had a great conference with Elder Ballard, and Elder Raspband, and Bishop Stevenson, and we learned so much. But I was especially impressed with Elder Ballard's member fireside the following night. He essentially taught the restoration, the plan of salvation, and the gospel of Jesus Christ in the most attentive, personal, interesting way. And it was powerful. It was so clear that he had written so much of Preach My Gospel! But it was especially neat to see how he taught it according to the backgrounds of people in this area of the world. His first lines to the member fireside was, "Wow, you all have a lot of tall buildings. No wonder people here have such stiff necks, they're looking up at these tall buildings all the time!" He was so funny. Had so many good jokes. It was a fun night. But it has changed the way me and Sister Takahashi are teaching, especially the first lesson. 

We met a woman the other night in Shek Kip Mei. She was alone and overlooking the court areas a ways down the park. Her clothes were pretty worn, and you could tell she worked a lot, probably a pretty physically tiring job, but she held her dignity really well. We almost walked right passed her because it was about time for us to head to the mtr, but she caught our eye and we walked over to her. I almost felt guilty interrupting her...It was clear she was working some things over in her mind. I liked seeing someone being so thoughtful, but we said hello anyway. Her daughter was playing basketball with some friends. She lives in chyun just down the road, yes, beautiful night tonight. Please, have a seat. Work was hard, and she was feeling tired. Her body was starting to see more signs of aging, and she said her life wasn't what she thought it would be. She didn't have religion. Never really thought about God. So we told her who God was. And then we told her who she was. I wish I had time to type out everything we talked about because I think it's something everyone should hear. But as we taught prayer, and invited her to pray with us, she opened up in a way to Heavenly Father in the most personal and pleading way and broke down in tears. She would repeat the same 3 or 4 phrases and just plead with Heavenly Father to hear her, and to help her, and support her. she didn't really know what she was asking for, but was hoping for even some small reason to hope. She was one of 3 woman this week to just break down to us. And I never know exactly how to respond to them. Because my attempts of comforting them pales in comparison to anything the Savior could do, or His Gospel. I wish I could keep writing about this woman. She was the most genuine, and kind, and good woman I think I've met here. I am so lucky to be here in Hong Kong and meet and talk to such incredible people. And the ability to share this knowledge and plan and blessing that gives these people hope is more than I deserve. I need to go, but I love you guys! I hope you have a great week!

Hannah

Week 45

Hello!

Happy Birthday Danny BOY!!! what are you doing for the big 16? Did you know that daaih luhk means mainland. so we refer to china as daaih luhk. And daaih means big. luhk means 6 (they have other meanings too, but we'll just go with these.) So we call China, "The Big 6" So you're the big 16. almost China. There's some power for you.

But you guys sound great! What a fun trip. You couldn't be more wrong, mom. I soak up every word you write :) never boring. That teacher appreciation night sounds so great! How fun! I love the Thornburgs. Everyone loves the Thornburgs ha. And I cant wait to see your quilts!

This was an incredible week! Elder Ballard visited, and it was the incredible. And he brought his daughter Tamara and his son-in-law Brad. Sound familiar?! It made me smile :) He ended up talking a lot about Toronto, so that was fun. But I was so impressed. He called us to repentance in the most loving and inspired ways. He asked two specific questions no person in the mission could raise their hand to. We are an incredibly obedient mission. Elder Holland has remarked on the obedience of our mission several times, so it wasn't that we were doing anything bad or wrong. But his opening words were: "you are a little to shy." and then he unloaded. It was amazing.

alright, I'll write more next week :) but I need to go. I am so sorry to write so little. I had planned so much...too much that I couldn't actually write anything. I'm so sorry. I love you all. Next week!

Take care of each other.

Love Hannah